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State GOP money went to fund for May ballot measures
May 12th, 2009, 4:03 pm · 18 Comments · posted by Martin Wisckol, Politics reporter
The California Republican Party is opposing the six measures on the May 19 ballot, yet it gave $650,000 to the account Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger is using to fund support of those measures.
The news can’t help the GOP’s increasing image of deterioration. The state’s minority party is struggling financially, Republican activists are trying to recall three GOP legislators and the GOP governor, and the GOP leaders in both houses of the legislature have been forced out from their top posts.
For the first time, the state GOP does not have a majority of voter registration - 50 percent plus one vote - in a single state legislative or congressional district, according to this article by election handicapper Allan Hoffenblum.
Here’s how the $650,000 contribution fiasco started: Typically, the governor and the legislative leaders help raise money for their respective state parties. Those parties, in turn, help fund the political activities of their top elected officials.
Schwarzenegger has been a particularly effective fundraiser for the state GOP. In January - while the budget was stalled, no ballot measures had been introduced, and the governor was not yet supporting tax hikes - Schwarzenegger asked the state party for money for his “Dream Team” political account. The party responded on Jan. 22 by giving him $450,000.
“There was not in anybody’s mind the thought that the Republican governor would support a tax increase,” said Huntington Beach’s Keith Carlson, treasurer of the state GOP.
In February, the Legislature reached a budget deal - supported by all the Legislature’s Democrats and six of the Republicans - and approved the six measures for the May ballot. Schwarzenegger backed both the budget and the ballot measures.
Yet a couple days later - on Feb. 20 - the state GOP approved a request from Schwarzenegger for another $200,000.
“The governor helped the party and the governor made a request (for funds) for his political activities,” Carlson said, noting that the law prevents donors to such political accounts from earmarking what the money can be used for. The money can be spent on everything from trips to governors’ conferences to, well, ballot measures.
“The party never intended to provide support for a tax increase,” Carlson said. Someone else, not speaking for attribution, told me that basically the GOP was obligated to return to Schwarzenegger a chunk of the money he raised and that he wanted to get the money before he had a falling out with the state party.
Through May 2, the period covered by the most recent campaign disclosures, Schwarzenegger had given $1.8 million from his “Dream Team” account - the same one the GOP money went into - to the campaign for the ballot measures.
Related stories:
No new taxes? GOP dollars support campaign Republicans abhor
Arnold: State deficit will grow to $21.3 billion if measures fail
Sports teams give big bucks for Prop. 1A
Meg Whitman starts looking beyond the GOP
Signature gathering begins in recall of assemblyman
Recall effort targets O.C. state senator over ballot measure
Democrats struggle to turn popularity into more offices held
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DENA BUNIS, Washington bureau chief, 202-628-6381 or dbunis@ocregister.com
BRIAN JOSEPH, Sacramento correspondent, 916-449-6046 or bjoseph@ocregister.com
JENNIFER MUIR, County government reporter, 714-796-7813 or jmuir@ocregister.com
JOEL WALSH, Washington bureau intern, 202-628-6381 or jwalsh@ocregister.com
MARTIN WISCKOL, Politics reporter, 714-285-2867 or mwisckol@ocregister.com twitter.com/MartinWisckol
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Hmm, a GOP that is contradictory and unclear where it stands. Shocking!
The GOP needs strong leadership, this makes no sense to me. I have been very disappointed in Gov. Arnold.
Mary in Tustin
I agree, GOP leadership is lacking at all levels (state, federal, local). I too am disappointed with Arnold. I thought he was the right man for the job, but he has lost my support. At this point, he seems to be the one who needs to be recalled.
Last to know? The OC Register? Blindsided for decades, preferring the more politically correct identification with “Libertarian” philosophy,, it was never successful in that clumsy attempt to disguise its unabashed preference for outright ANARCHY!
The OCR was “the bleating beast,” the lowest to the ground intellectually over decades and not incidentally compatible with the majority “mindless set” of “right wing extremists,” John Birchers, one of whom while elected to the state senate, a “married man” caught in a “love nest” with a woman having born his out-of-wedlock offspring; one of which, a daughter, who became notorious as a teacher involved in a “sexual” relationship with a minor, a male student.
There was the book, “The Twisted Badge,” all about fhe former Sheriff, Gates, and seemingly the “road map” in OC for acceptance of such conduct, vis a vis, former Sheriff Corona, who had a magnanimous penchant for clearing all “sworn officers,” those of the Sheriff or “cops” of any possibility of “evil” intent of “wrong doing,” like ordinary “collateral damage” of deaths from excessive/lethalforce, or even being jailed in the systems of the Sheriffs, coincidental with their “duty hours?” Or even “off-duty?”
The OCR now leans evermoreso .. its legacy will be its role in the debacle now presentiing: begging subscribers? That would be those unable to read; No, not “illegals,” but our children handicapped in costly systems of education by incompetent teachers, and the OCR never having had the courage to TAKEON the RACKETEERING AND CORRUPTION as ordinary commerce in this county between ORGANIZED LABOR and their “laborers” on “City Councils across the county, Huntington Beach controlled by the Teamsters, The Board of Supervisors, and the “Republicans” that went “upstream” from those “launching pads,” Silva from HBCC to the BOS to State Assembly, Harman from State Assembly to State Senate.
What a difference it might have been had the OCR been a performing instrument of public information! The Democratic Party has never been challenged for its decades old policies of “Exclusion vs Inclusion, all assemblies in UNION HALLS [of worship?], but then, the Republican Party has ALWAYS BEEN BEHOLDEN TO UNIONS, they just wanted to keep it secret !
And the political scenario as it has unfolded should surprise no one. Martin Whiscol consisently felt this all so .. well .. uh … boring!!! Is it on purpose that his photo suggests someone surprised while caught by a photographer with his finger in an electrical socket .. hairs on end? So shocking?
??? what is this rambling nonsense about? Are you running for office? Can I get the condensed version of this diatribe?
Socialism is great, until the other guy runs out of money or in this case to another state.
I see Republican voters complaining about Sacramento, but you don’t see that many Democrats complaining about the party in power. They do complain about high taxes and waste, but never take responsibility for the cause. Yesterday, I was talking to a die hard Democrat friend of mine and he said that if the Republicans wouldn’t have voted with his party the state would not be in this fix. Its always someones fault, but not yours. Since I don’t have a party, I would love to see more Democratic voters start complaining about the party in power and Republicans do the same with your party. Don’t worry about hurting any ones feelings in Sacramento, they forgot you the day after the election.
Our country is in a big financial mess, attributable to general incomp-
etency, and our state is worse. I am convinced that organized labor,
in all levels of state government is a very large contributor to the mess.
The problem is that fighting unions is like fighting puppets. The
puppeteer is, although totally ignored, antiquated labor laws and
current politicians who are in bed with unions.
The solution: either bankruptcy or repeal of all laws giving organ-
ized labor elite status.
Again, don’t listen to what they tell you. Watch what they do. How they spend their money tells you everything you need to know. Anyone who gives a dime to the GOP in Ca and expects protection and support from the chieftons in the corner offices of the high rise buildings are only fooling themselves. Manipulation and exploitation are the tools they use. I used to be a member of their club. No more. I grew weary of giving them the benefit of the doubt. There comes a time when an abused spouse must walk out the door and never look back.
Our “representatives” spend and waste everything they get from taxes. It’s never enough and now we should believe that they are going to change if these props, (which they wrote) pass. All that will happen is that they will spend more if we give it to them. Why is it always the firefighters and the police that will suffer? Why not all of the other cushy government jobs? All the support staff and other workers that we would never miss if they were all fired? Don’t believe Arnold’s gloom and doom. Vote NO.
I’ve already voted. I voted “no” on every prop. except the one that pertains to pay raises during a deficit. I can never recall having a tax canceled or lowered, after a period of time. This is one big smoke screen. We spend over $12 Billion a year, on services and benefits for illegal immigrants. Until that stops, I will continue to vote “no” on tax and bond proposal.
Take the heroin away from the addicts. Vote “NO” on Props 1a-1e. Your choice on 1f. Make the boys in Sacramento return to the drawing board and their secret meetings with special invites to big business and the public union officials. But taxpaying citizens are prohibited from attending the meeting or knowing the agenda until the 11th hour. ha! It’s almost like I’m describing a stalinist state!
This is dated 5/12. John and Ken on KFI have been talking about this since March.
You got that right Grunt. Is the OCR now the “Od News Newspaper?”
Instances like this is why I refuse to give one penny to the republican party in the future. Loyal republican donors are unknowingly funding the tax increase propositions.
Get all these clowns out of office asap…they are a disgrace.
NO on 1A - 1F.
Let the pigs in Sacramento get slaughtered.
We missed the boat…should have voted for Tom!
It is interesting to read all of these comments, especially since someone who actually stands for limited government, family values, and a subsequent return to our Constitution tries to stop all of these evils by running for Office, can’t get the vital necessary support to actually win.
Been there and done that.
Kenneth M. Fisher,
Former Member of Orange County Republican Central Committee, 4 terms; former Member LA County and State Republican Central Committee, and former California Young Democrat Officer.
Savvy you are right.
The people of California have gotten and are still getting exactly what they deserve. They blame Sacramento, but they keep voting in the same incompentent legislators during every election and keep on approving every idiotic propositions year after year.